


Adda Bragga and the Bear King

by DrTanner



Category: Original Work, Tales From Farewenden
Genre: Bears, COME AND GET 'EM, DOMESTICATED BEARS, FAKE-ASS PRETEND FOLKLORE FOR MY ORIGINAL STORY'S FAKE-ASS PRETEND WORLD, Folklore, Gen, Original Fiction, Original Folklore, Tales From Farewenden - Freeform, YOU WANTED DOMESTICATED BEARS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22698268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrTanner/pseuds/DrTanner
Summary: "Adda Bragga and the Bear King" is a ubiquitous folk tale in Farewenden, of which everyone knows one version or another. It is the traditional opening story for the midwinter celebration of Nightertale and is often the first story parents tell their young children as they're learning to speak and play with others.This short story explains how Farewenden's cherished working and companion bears first became friends with people, taking on the roles that are generally occupied by a variety of other animals in more typical medieval-adjacent fantasy settings, e.g., horses, dogs, and oxen. Bears are versatile beasts, and most people in Farewenden's villages and townships find that it's more economical and convenient to keep one or perhaps two bears than it might be to keep a horse, two oxen, etc. ,etc., all to do their own specific jobs.It should likewise be mentioned that bears were domesticated in Farewenden in place of wolves, which are largely still wild and very skittish and fearful of people. Being impractical for many jobs, domesticated wolves are the reserve of rich weirdos in larger cities and a relatively new thing, viewed as a status symbol by the wealthy and an eccentric fad by everyone else.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Adda Bragga and the Bear King

The story of how people and bears came to be friends is one that reaches back to the very dawn of time, before there was any such a place as Farewenden. The land had no name in that early era, and human people were still living out in the wild wastes, struggling and suffering through every day from dawn until dusk. 

However, they were far from alone. 

They shared the land with the elk, the dragons, the wolves, the great white bull and many other fierce and mighty beasts, but most importantly, for the purposes of this story and many others, they shared the land with the bears. In the beginning, these wild creatures all lived in fear of one another, and the only saving grace of it was that human people had, at least, learned not to live in fear of their own, and had begun to live and work together in good, peaceful harmony. 

The bears, on the other hand, were a very different tribe. It would be unfair to call them savage, for we were all terribly savage back then, but they were jealous and warlike, eager to use their strength to fight anyone they could - even each other - and Campion, the King of the Bears, was the most monstrous and terrible of all. He claimed sole rule over vast swathes of the nameless land, and kept hold of it by laying low any and all who dared to challenge him. Truly, the only thing Campion could be said to care for more than himself was his favoured daughter, the strong and wise Hazel. To all others, he was a beastly horror, the stuff of deepest, darkest nightmares, for it was all he knew how to be. 

People lamented this fact often, for they could see that the bears were a formidable clan with many talents, and it seemed likely that they could help each other enormously. Where the bears excelled as trackers and had unmatched brute strength, they failed as planners and strategists, and could scarcely even begin to work together for any purpose. The weaknesses of the bears happened to be the greatest gifts of human people, but they had traded away the power, speed and keen senses boasted by most other creatures in exchange for them. Between them, human people and bears could surely achieve wondrous things, if only Campion could be convinced to make friends. 

The only person brave enough to attempt such a feat was a warrior-mother called Adda Bragga, and even she knew that to approach Campion directly would be foolhardy. Instead, she and her companions put their heads together, as human people are wont to do, and they cleverly hatched a plan: Adda Bragga would go to Hazel instead. She would meet Hazel in the meadow while she was gathering herbs alone under the full moon, and do her best to make a friend of her. With any luck, Campion might be reluctant to come down on a friend of his favoured daughter, and then, with perhaps a little more luck, he might be persuaded to listen to Adda Bragga’s suggestion of partnership between their disparate tribes. 

And so, come the next full moon, Adda Bragga went out to the meadow where Hazel was known to gather her herbs, and, pretending to have been doing the same, greeted Hazel as a friend. 

To begin with, Hazel was mistrustful of Adda Bragga, for she was a human person, and before that night, people and bears had always had reason to fear each other. Suspecting trickery, Hazel turned on her, but Adda Bragga was a skilled warrior of many years and she had come prepared with her staff and her shield. With her weapons and her human guile, Adda Bragga fended off Hazel’s attacks, all without ever doing her harm, and by besting Hazel in combat, she earned her respect, at least enough that she could speak and Hazel would listen. 

Adda Bragga chose her words carefully, for she was not only a warrior but a mother too, and knew that it was important that Hazel shouldn’t be made feel foolish for her misjudgement. It was only reasonable, after all, and Adda Bragga said so. 

“Even amongst bears, you are a fine warrior!” she said, and meant it. “But I mean you no harm, even though I know why you could think I would. People and bears have always fought. Someone who looks like me might have hurt you in the past, and you could hardly tell just by looking that I wouldn’t be the same.” 

“If you don’t want to hurt me, then,” said Hazel, “What do you want? If not my meat or my fine pelt, what have you come to take from me?” 

“O strong and wise Hazel,” Adda Bragga told her, “I do not wish to take anything from you. I merely saw that we have a shared interest in these herbs, and I hoped that we might work together.” 

Hazel made no secret of the fact that she found this odd, but she knew enough about people to see that Adda Bragga was only doing what came naturally to her by suggesting cooperation, just as she herself had only done what came naturally by attacking out of fear. So, with each being fully aware and accepting of the other’s oddness, they went together under the full moon and gathered herbs in the meadow, sharing much of what they knew as they did. 

Between the two of them, they found many more useful herbs in the meadow than either one would have done alone; Adda Bragga’s wealth of knowledge, passed down from her ancestors and friends, let them know where to look for what they needed, and her tools and dextrous hands made sure that they were cleanly harvested, to better make use of them when they were found. Meanwhile, Hazel’s tremendous sense of smell and superior sight in the darkness lead them to many more rare and precious plants that were well hidden in the moon’s pale light, and at the end of the night, they thanked each other for the help, and parted ways amicably. 

From then on, at each full moon, all through the summer months, Adda Bragga and Hazel would meet in the meadow to gather herbs together, and they soon became firm friends. However, when the autumn came, and the air became cold and harsh, Adda Bragga saw that Hazel was deeply unhappy, and she asked her what was troubling her. 

“Winter is fast approaching,” explained Hazel, sadly. “Food will be so scarce and hard to find that I will have to go home and go into a long sleep, and I will not be able to come out and gather herbs with you again until the spring.” 

“Then come back to my village with me,” said Adda Bragga. “We have food enough that you won’t have to sleep through the winter at all, and with your help, we could find even more.” 

“That does sound good,” Hazel admitted, “But I am expecting my first litter of cubs in the new year, and they must have a safe place to hide until they are strong enough to walk with me. What of my cubs, Adda Bragga? Will your village be safe for them?” 

“We will build you a home to give birth in,” Adda Bragga assured her. “Warm and dry, and more safe and secure than any den could hope to be. You and I have made up for each other’s shortcomings and complimented each other’s talents for a whole summer,” she said. “Imagine how much we could achieve together all year round!” 

Satisfied, Hazel smiled and nodded. 

“Very well then. When my father is asleep for the winter and I need not worry about his objections, I will meet you here, and we will travel to your village together.” 

And so, at the onset of winter, Hazel made her den and pretended to settle in it, and when she was sure that Campion was deeply asleep, she quietly hastened out to the meadow to meet Adda Bragga, who was there waiting for her, as promised. From there, they travelled together to Adda Bragga’s village, where Hazel was greeted as a friend and welcomed into Adda Bragga’s family, and sure enough, they had built Hazel a wonderful home, warm, dry and safe, more than fit for any bear. 

Bears and people eat many of the same things, as it happens, and so Hazel ate her meals with the rest of the people in the village and enjoyed them greatly. She worked with them, hunted with them and celebrated midwinter with them, and when the time came for Hazel to have her cubs, Adda Bragga and all of her family and friends were there to help her and to keep them all happy and well fed. 

Come the spring, Hazel and her young cubs were stronger and more sprightly than any wild bears could ever hope to be, and she had enjoyed her time with Adda Bragga and her family so much that she was loathe to return to her wild home before her father could awaken and find her gone. Indeed, so reluctant was she that in the end, she tarried too long, and before she knew it, Campion was awake and out of his den, and looking for her. 

And Campion was far from the only one. His terrible, grief-stricken rage quickly made itself known to every other bear under his rule, and many of them, both fearing Campion’s wrath and being concerned for the safety of Hazel, of whom they were widely very fond, also set out to search for her. This was, understandably, of great concern not just to Hazel and her new cubs, who did not want to be viewed as traitors to their own kind, but to the people too, especially Adda Bragga, whom had come to love Hazel like a daughter herself. 

However, one of those great gifts unique to human people would be Hazel’s salvation, for Adda Bragga and her companions once again put their heads together, and cleverly hatched a plan. 

Knowing that the bears who knew and loved Hazel best would surely come to the meadow where she often gathered herbs to search for her, they suggested that Hazel might hide herself there, and, when her friends arrived, appear to them and invite them to see where she had been all winter. With any luck, those bears might be persuaded to join her and also become friends with Adda Bragga and the rest of her village, and they could all live together happily, safe from Campion’s anger. 

Hazel agreed that this was an excellent idea, and so she went to the meadow, hid herself there, and waited for her friends to arrive. It didn’t take long at all for them to come - Comfrey, the father of her cubs; Birch, her younger sister; Sage and Hemlock, her childhood friends. To each of them Hazel quietly revealed herself, and said:

“Come! Come and see where I have been all winter!” 

And when they each came back to Adda Bragga’s village and met the people there, they were each offered the same hand of friendship and the same promise of help in exchange for help that Hazel had received, and they each eagerly accepted. What was more, however, was that each of them was then able to go out and find their fellow bears, their friends and family, and convince them to come back to the village, too. Before too long at all, there were almost as many bears in Adda Bragga’s village as there were people, and they all lived together and worked together and ate together merrily every day, and the bears never had to fear the approach of winter again. 

But their peace couldn’t last. Campion was not called King of the Bears for compliment’s sake, and it was not only his unparalleled physical prowess that set him above his would-be rivals. His great sense of smell, his sensitive hearing and his skill as a tracker and a hunter were all without equal, and when he saw that more of his fellow bears were disappearing from his lands and not returning, he set about tracking them down himself. It took him no time at all to follow them to the territory of human people, to the village where Adda Bragga, Hazel and all of their loved ones lived. 

However, even as enormous and terrible as Campion was, and even as furious as he was when he arrived on their borders, neither the people nor the bears in the village were afraid of him. The bears, having had most of a year to eat good food, rest well and work hard, were healthy and strong. They wore studded leather armour on their bodies to protect them from Campion’s deadly claws and dagger-like teeth, and the people sat astride their backs to better direct them in battle, with shields and spears to better help them defend themselves. But most of all, they were all together, and Campion, no matter how strong, fierce or angry he might be, was only one bear. They need not fear his wild rage any longer. 

Campion saw all of this, and knew that he couldn’t possibly win. In the face of it all, he gave up without a fight, but it was not the armour, nor the weapons, nor the newfound strength and unity of his former fellows that persuaded him to surrender. Rather, it was the knowledge that Hazel, his favoured daughter, was ready to lead the charge against him, and he had no taste for violence if it meant doing harm to his beloved Hazel. 

“I don’t understand!” he cried out to her, distraught. “What has happened to you!? How can you love these people so!? Bears do not love! We are warriors through and through, and have no love to give, even for each other!” 

“That cannot possibly be true,” Hazel told him. “You love me, do you not?” 

“Of course I love you,” replied Campion, ruefully. “But you are my  _ family, _ dear Hazel. Of course I love you.” 

“Then make all the world your family,” Hazel said. “As the people do, and learn to love and care for everyone as much as you would your own.”

Hazel invited Campion to come and see where she and all of their fellow bears had been all year, just as she had invited Comfrey, Birch, Sage and Hemlock, and so many others, and when he saw the warm, dry homes the people had built for them, tasted the fine food and crisp, clean water the people had grown and gathered for them, and felt the gentle touch of a loving hand on his coarse, wet fur, Campion understood why they had all chosen to stay. 

“There is a place amongst our family here for you, too, Campion,” said Adda Bragga. “The talents of people and bears fit together like the teeth in our mouths.” 

With the chill weather fast approaching, Campion looked forward to the long sleep through the harsh winter months as little as any bear, and knew that he had been wrong. There was a good life to be found here, with bears and people living, working and playing together, and Campion bowed his head in humble apology, for he had never been evil, only wild and fearful, as the nature he was born with had lead him to be. 

So, to establish the formal union between people and bears, Campion and Adda Bragga were married, in grand ceremony. A great celebration was had by all, and the partnership of people and bears has remained strong ever since. 

Wild bears may yet be found out in the furthest reaches of Farewenden, and they remain every bit as savage and fearful as Campion was in those early days before bears and people properly met, but the civilised bears of our farms, villages and townships are to this day our most faithful and loyal companions, as well as the most stalwart defenders of our shared homes. 

Be sure to treasure your own families’ bears, my friends, for they rely on you for a great deal, but will always happily give much, much more in return. 


End file.
